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Fannie Flagg remembers Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly…

Actress and author (“Fried Green Tomatoes”) Fannie Flagg wrote a wonderful tribute to Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly that appears in the current issue of Entertainment Weekly. Brett and Charles did many things in their careers but their appearances on “Match Game” throughout the 70s were so delicious and it is how so many of us remember them best.

Here is Fannie’s tribute to this hilarious pair who both died in 2007:

Besides being hilarious, Brett and Charles were two of the smartest people I have ever known. On “Match Game,” they got such a big kick out of each other! They razzed one another and everybody else on the panel mercilessly, and they were particularly relentless on the people they really liked. It was never mean or hurtful, and they loved it when you razzed them back.

One of the happiest times in my life was in 1980 when I was doing “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” on Broadway, and Charles, Brett and I were staying at the Wyndham Hotel at the same time. Every day at around 4 o’clock in the afternoon they would come to my room for cocktails. Many is the time I would come home from after the show and they would still be sitting there having a good time. The only thing that changed was the position of Charles’ toupee.

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I found this lengthy tribute to Miss Somers on YouTube. There’s a scene from an old movie she was in that seems out of place but the rest of it is just great, including a late-in-life interview with the woman herself who was 83 when she died on Sept. 15.